Briefly world

KABUL, Afghanistan The Taliban today took responsibility for a suicide attack that rocked the gate leading into the presidential palace with at least six blasts and at least 45 minutes of small-arms fire.

The Taliban sent a text-message statement saying “we brought death to the enemy.”

The palace is in a large fortified area of downtown Kabul that also includes the U.S. Embassy and the headquarters for the NATO-led coalition forces.

Mexican ex-official is charged

Federal prosecutors charged a former Mexican governor with money laundering and embezzling millions of dollars from state coffers in a case that has outraged Mexicans because of reports of his extravagant spending. Last month, prosecutors found 88.5 million pesos, about $7 million in cash, in an office used by a former Tabasco state treasurer who served under former Gov. Andres Granier.

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Clashes challenge Lebanon's army

Lebanon's third-largest city of Sidon was turned into a battle zone Monday as the military fought heavily armed followers of an extremist Sunni Muslim cleric holed up in a mosque. Residents of the southern port fled machine-gun fire and grenade explosions that also involved Shiite gunmen. Official reports said at least 16 soldiers were killed and 50 were wounded in two days of clashes with armed followers of Ahmad al-Assir, a Sunni sheik whose rapid rise is a sign of the frustration among many Lebanese who resent the ascendancy of Shiites to power, led by the Hezbollah militants.

Attacks in Iraq kill at least 42

A series of evening bombings near markets in and around Baghdad and other blasts north of the capital killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens of others Monday. The attacks were the latest in violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since the beginning of April. Militants, building on Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government, appear to be growing stronger in central and northern Iraq.

Mandela asleep during visit

South Africa's president on Monday said a critically ill Nelson Mandela was asleep when he visited the 94-year-old at the hospital, and he urged the country to pray for Mandela. President Jacob Zuma said doctors are doing everything possible to help the former president feel comfortable on his 17th day in a Pretoria hospital. The briefing came a day after the government said Mandela's condition had deteriorated and was now critical.

Berlusconi gets

7 years in sex case

A court in Milan found former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi guilty of paying for sex with a minor and abusing his office to cover it up, handing him a seven-year jail sentence and banning him from public office for life.

Berlusconi, who denies wrongdoing, does not have to leave the legislature while the case faces two rounds of appeals. The trial involved an underage woman named Karima El-Mahroug, nicknamed “Ruby Heart-Stealer.”

Jolie urges world to end rape in war

Actress Angelina Jolie made her debut before the U.N.'s most powerful body as a special envoy for refugees Monday, urging the fight against rape in war be made a top priority. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told the Security Council that “hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of women, children and men have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes.” The council later adopted a legally binding resolution demanding the complete and immediate cessation of acts of sexual violence by all parties to armed conflict.

Also,

South Korea told government offices and the public to beware of cyberattacks after government websites were shut down on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Officials said they were still investigating whether hacking was responsible for the crashing of multiple government websites and at least one media website.

Under pressure after more than a week of nationwide protests, Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff said her government would spend $23 billion more on public transportation.